ABINGER HARVEST - First Penguin paperback edition - first printing

E. M. Forster

Published by Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1967

About this Item

Penguin Catalogue No. 2365. A 1967 first printing of the first UK paperback edition - a larger Penguin volume priced at 7/6 on the front cover. The book was first published in hardback by Edward Arnold in 1936. The cover shows the clockhouse at Abinger Hammer, Surrey. ***A near fine copy in illustrated black and orange covers. The covers have some marks and creasing commensurate with age and handling, but are extremely clean and unfaded. No creases or tears to the covers. The spine is clean, with no reading creases, and there is no lean to the binding which is straight. No fading to the covers. Internally the book is also near fine, with no inscriptions and no creases or tears. The paper stock is only slightly tanned with age, and there is tanning to the edges of the inside of the card covers. No foxing. No dustwrappers were issued on these later Penguin editions. ***384 pages. 180mm x 110mm. ***Contents: Part I - The Present, Part II - Books, Part III - The Past, Book IV - The East, Book V - The Abinger Pagaent. ***'"Abinger Harvest" assembles in one volume some eighty essays, reviews, and poems published by E. M. Forster in the first third of the century.' [Quote taken from the back cover]. ***'Edward Morgan Forster OM CH (1 Jan 1879 - 7 Jun 1970) was an English fiction writer, essayist and librettist. Many of his novels examine class difference and hypocrisy, including A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910) and A Passage to India (1924). The last brought him his greatest success. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 16 separate years.' ***'"Abinger Harvest" is a 1936 non-fiction book by English author E.M. Forster. The book is a mixture of autobiographical writing and literary criticism, along with essays and poems written by Forster as a freelancer spanning back to 1903. This, alongside "Two Cheers for Democracy", was one of two collections of essays published during Forster's lifetime. Starting in August 1934, Forster began assembling a collection of his essays with the support of William Plomer. Some of the writing was taken from as far back as his time in Egypt and focused on, among other things, Englishness. Forster had faced opposition to the name "Abinger Harvest" and said that people "made a face like a shrew mouse" upon hearing the title. The book is divided into four sections and an article on a country pageant: "The Present" - The essays in this section focuses on contemporary society, post-war culture and England and Englishness. Abinger Hammer is a small village in the Vale of Holmesdale that had been connected to the Forsters for many decades. The work received a muted and divided response: Q. D. Leavis arguing in Scrutiny that ?it is a disappointing book?, but John Crowe Ransom in The Yale Review dubbing it ?one of the notable literary miscellanies of our time?'. [Wiki] ***A first printing of the first paperback edition, in exceptional condition. A Penguin collector's copy. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc. Seller Inventory # PB328

Bibliographic Details

Title: ABINGER HARVEST - First Penguin paperback ...

Publisher: Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex

Publication Date: 1967

Binding: Original Wraps

Condition: Near Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket, as Issued

Edition: First UK Paperback Edition